Libi

Fortnight 1969, Short film,

Synopsis

The film begins with an onscreen title: « DIESER FILM ZEIGT WIE DAS LEBEN EBEN SO IST » (« This film shows how life actually is »). We are treated to a blowjob, an umbrella indiscreetly protruding from a man’s ass as he reads the newspaper, anonymous people contorting their asses before each other, and scenes of priests performing sacraments whose moldering ritualism stands in contrast to Mühl’s liberated sexual display. A sign reading « Direct Art » is then pulled away to reveal a close-up penis lurking beneath — yet again, it is Kren’s editing that actually « performs » or mobilizes these actions, as if the materiality of the temporal-material action rests in the mechanical apparatus of the cinema.

Director

Otto Muehl

Austrian performance artist, painter, writer and film maker. In the 1960s, his work dealt with the social taboos surrounding sexuality, to the point that « Art and Revolution, » performed at the University of Vienna in July, 1968, led to arrests. After 1966 he was a founder-member of the Institut fur Direkte Kunst.